Open Engineering to the PMCG

[FearTheBlackout]

Basically what the title says: Let Engineering pick the PMCG (and the constituent subsidiaries as a result) as their megacorporation.

The reasoning for this is twofold:

1. I think engineer duties lend themselves well to the culture of the PMCG, and combat engineers and sappers do exist conceptually. 

2. Having another department for Engineering would help resolve some of the inconsistencies with origin, species, etc, and the corporations that engineers can pick; FTC Tajara only being able to select Hephaestus, a megacorporation despised by the nation they share a planet with, is one example. Orepitter IPCs being unable to be in Engineering at all because Hephaestus initially wouldn't hire them was another example.

Engineering PMCG lore could also be created as a result: Grupo Amapola workers who helped clear debris post-Mandate, or more focus on N4NL's cybersecurity practices...just as some examples.

Edited 17 hours ago by FearTheBlackout

[dessysalta]

I'm not against this, but NanoTrasen feels like the more immediately obvious pick to allow into engineering. There's a thread that predates this one by quite a lot- but either way it would have to be NT or the PMCG, not both (per the 3 depts rule).

[CatsinHD]

7 hours ago, FearTheBlackout said:

FTC Tajara only being able to select Hephaestus, a megacorporation despised by the nation they share a planet with,

This is a lore matter that is being fixed currently, I would rather not use it as a case for adding more departments to the list. 

As for the suggestion, as mentioned by Dessyalta, I think NT would be my choice over PMCG if we had to add another corp to engineering. I believe the main thing for me is that Combat Engineer/Sapper =\= ship engineer. The qualifications, training, and effective duties are pretty dissimilar. I, personally, would be confused seeing PMCG in engineering. Adding lore to PMCG to justify its addition could work, I suppose, but I'm not sure whether that would be better than including NT who has an arguably stronger justification: being the manufacturer of the BSD and Super matter engines.

Granted, the reason why NT wasn't included was the limitations placed on how many departments a corp may be within. NT is already maxed out at 3. Whether we still believe that to be a good limit or not is another question.

[KingOfThePing]

The departments being differentiated between by having certain megacorps "assigned" to them sets them apart. There seems to be a creeping up mentality that everyone should be able to do everything (be it race, job, corp, department, etc.), which ultimately dilutes everything together and robs anything of any identity.

This is especially noticable with the PCMG. I get it that they, as a private contracting firm have their hands in kind of everything, which makes sense, but reflecting this on-server I personally see as detrimental to the experience. 

tl;dr PMCG in Medical and Security only is fine.

Edited 7 hours ago by KingOfThePing

[zha everything broken]

I think NT has a stronger claim to fielding engineers on the Horizon.

I think PMCG is a much more fun and interesting choice.

The limit of three departments per Corp is, to me, a good rule of thumb to maintain; every single corp would have reason to employ people of just about every job we have on the Horizon, and the three-dept limit keeps things from turning into a free-for-all.

So yeah. +1 for what it's worth.

Were the powers-that-be to approve the idea (idk, maintainers? Modmins? Lore? All three?) and someone wrote up a little lore, I'd be happy to put together all the PMCG engi uniform sprites and write the code for this.

EDIT: KingOfThePing dropped an excellent post while I was writing this; while I strongly agree with the idea in principle, I'm of the opinion that the three-dept still limit keeps dept and corp waters from getting Too muddy, but that is I think a pretty subjective call. I would be very much against 4+ dept corps, but the triad makes for a nice dynamic IMO. Especially with NBT2 in the pipe, I'm not As concerned about keeping megacorps siloed as I might otherwise be.

Edited 7 hours ago by zha everything broken
Update

[FabianK3]

I very much agree with @KingOfThePing's post through and through.
I don't really see PMCG suited for the engineering department, neither do I really even see the need to add a third.

If a third corporation is requested in the engineering department, I find NT a much more viable candidate for it then PMCG.
While the rule of three is a good limit, I don't think it's necessary enforce three corporations in each department either.

[GeneralCamo]

Fully with @KingOfThePing and @FabianK3. As noted by @CatsinHD the issues with the FTC are being resolved differently. As such, I am voting to dismiss this suggestion.

[greenjoe]

I don't think NT can get into Engineering as that is already in 3 departments (service, med and sci), and with the ruling that a corp can only be in 3 departments, that would not be too possible...
Orion express, however?